September 15 Stinson Beach

 

Sunday, September 15 Stinson Beach

Zoom!  Zoom!  Zoom!  Look at how fast I am!  I still got it!

It is a bit windy this morning.  Some overcast and pretty cool.  Since Spouse’s legs fell off yesterday, he isn’t going on my walk with me.  I head to Shollenberger Park to try yet another of the trails.  I head right, then follow the trail around.  It is closed in about a mile, but I choose to walk it anyway, and I am glad I did.  It curves around the wetlands to the slough.  There is a bench and an observation deck.  Framed by the rolling hills, scullers row by enjoying their Sunday morning.  At least for now as it looks like they are rowing with the tide…  How they get back???  Hmmm

I get to the closure, then turn around to head back.  Only as I was leaving did I find out that on Sundays, if you wait at the closure, an escort will take you through construction area and you can complete the loop.  Oh well, I was good with retracing my steps as there is a line of tall bushes that are blocking the wind.

After breakfast at the Elks, we headed back to Point Reyes, with the intent of going south, since we did north the other day.  As we got close, we had to use the GPS…  How exasperating!  She does get us to the sign that actually says Stinson Beach (go left), yet she is saying go right…  Spouse FINALLY disregards her and goes left.  She says we have 45 miles.  Really?  Nothing like hearing these words coming from Spouse ‘I guess I should have gotten gas.’  Really???  This area is remote.  It’s not like there is a gas station on every corner… or ANY corner for that matter! And there are no corners here anyway!  He thinks we have enough to cruise around…  I sure hope so…

South on 1 we head.  It is a narrow, windy road that is forested with oaks, pines and some eucalyptus.  No traffic to speak of so we can enjoy it at our own pace.  The GPS bitch had us turn right in a weird spot, but since I saw a detour sign on the horizon, I assumed she knew what she was doing.  It was a short detour that took us around, then down by an ocean inlet.  I agreed with her til we got to the stop sign and she indicated she had no idea where we were.  We knew to turn right, and wouldn’t you know, she adjusted the miles we had to go from 36 down to 4.  I had no idea where she was planning on taking us.  It boggles my mind!  Although I still hear Spouse’s lament on gas, I feel a lot better now.  It is windy.  We follow the inlet around to Stinson Beach.  It is a tiny community with a few homes and shops.  The beach is WINDY!  There are WHITECAPS!  It is COLD!  A quick look was good enough for me. 

Continuing south on 1, we turn up the road to Mt. Tamalpais.  This is supposedly the highest mountain in Marin County.  We cannot get a reading on the GPS nor the phone as to where this will end up.  It is a narrow, windy mountain road, covered with pines with spectacular views.  As we climb (do we need gas?), we figure since we are limited on fuel, we better head back to 1.  We do climb just a little more, then turn around.  I think this winds around to the other side of the mountain and intersects with 1, but since we have the fuel issue, this is not the place to find out I am wrong!

Back to 1.  It is windy, with perilous cliffs that are not for people with a fear of heights (not us).  I am amazed at the crazy bicyclists riding this road.  There is no bike lane so cars have to move around them, or wait to get around them.  Some cars do wait, others go around them on a curve which is so dangerous!  We pass the road that would have taken us to Mt. Tamalpais…  Yes, it did go through.  Ultimately, we wound our way into civilization.  We were able to hop onto 101 back to Petaluma.  We were able to get fuel…

Tomorrow, we are heading to the Mendocino area.  We have no reservations.  We have no idea what is in store for us, so I will blog when I can.

Rudy has been doing zoomies!  He can run from one end to Artee to the other real fast!  He seems to be enjoying it!